1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image display apparatus having a fixed display screen resolution and, more particularly, to an image display apparatus using a liquid crystal or plasma display panel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, technical innovation and price reduction are being in progress in the field of display panels such as liquid crystal and plasma display panels, and portable personal computers utilizing these display panels are becoming popular.
Up to date, a variety of software inclusive of those developed in the past in available for use with personal computers. Generally, however, the display screen resolution corresponding to the software developed in the past is lower than that of newly developed software. Therefore, there are a plurality of different display screen resolutions corresponding to software utilized for one personal computer. In the meantime, a display panel usually has a fixed display screen resolution. If such a display panel is used with software having a lower display screen resolution, a lower size display is obtained than the display screen size of the display panel. By way of example, 640-dot-by-200-dot display data is displayed using a display panel having a resolution of 640 dots by 480 dots, the display size is reduced to 5/12, i.e., approximately one half, of the available display screen size, as shown in FIG. 2, with 7/12 of the screen being a non-display area. Such a display, which is reduced in size, can be seen unsatisfactorily, so that the feature of the high resolution display panel is sacrified.